1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fasteners, and more particularly to fasteners for holding items to a perforated wall, including, but not limited to, fasteners for consumer and commercial uses and in displaying collector items or goods for sale, or for supporting heavy items, or for supporting shelves, platforms, wire frames and similar items.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A wide variety of useful fasteners for holding items to walls is available to the public and has been for many years. When attaching items to a perforated wall, the available fasteners are much fewer in number, and those that are available have many severe drawbacks. One exception is the perfboard toolholder fastener made in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,160, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference (discussed in detail hereinafter).
For convenience, in this specification, the term "item holder" will be used to represent a type of implement that is attachable to a perforated wallboard by insertion of an element into at least one hole and used to hold hand tools, garden tools, instruments, wires, cables, display objects (such as packages, blister display packs, vacuum display packs, loose hardware or household items, grocery items, department or variety store items, and shelves), pictures, wire frames, and the like. The term "item holder" will generally be used in place of more common terms such as "hook" or "toolholder", since "item holder" is considered generic to both of the former two terms.
The terms "wall", "wallboard", "pegboard," and "perfboard" shall be used interchangeably to represent that type of wall-like structure in which at least one hole is made and which accommodates and supports an item holder by means of insertion of a part of the item holder into the hole. These structures include what is commonly referred to as pegboards or perfboards, as well as paneling or wallboard into which at least one hole is made or formed.
The typical item holder for commercial uses is a straight single or double bar, usually extending from about four inches to about fourteen inches from the perforated wallboard. An item holder of this type usually has a pair of bent rod-like offset hooked portions at its top which are inserted into horizontally adjacent holes by a pivoting action of the fastener to situate the top tip of the hooked portions behind the wallboard while allowing the lower part of the fastener to rest against the front surface of the wallboard.
While the use of a pair of hooked portions may inhibit rotation of the item holder, it does not avoid the frustration experienced when the item holder itself is pulled off the perfboard along with the item being removed from it. The consequences of such an event are numerous, the primary ones being the need for the store personnel to locate, rehang, or replace the fallen item holder, the obvious cleanup, restocking, and cost problems associated with damaged goods, and, most importantly, the loss of goodwill on the part of the customer who, in addition to being frustrated, may also be embarrassed by the experience. Those who encounter such fasteners or holders for hanging items experience frustration and irritation upon attempting to remove the item from the fastener, since the bottom portion of the fastener is easily pulled away from the wall surface, i.e., there is no provision for fixing it to the perfboard.
Those who use perforated boards (sometimes referred to as pegboards, a pressed board material with regularly spaced perforations into which hooks may be inserted for the storage or display of tools, instruments, and other articles) are familiar with the frustration and irritation involved with an insecure hook. In a commercial environment, not only do the fasteners pull off the wallboard and get lost or damaged, especially when only one or two items are left hanging from an item holder, but fragile items, such as tea or coffee cups, can easily be broken when a shopper inadvertently tugs too hard or bumps the item holder, and causes the item holder to be dislodged from the perfboard, which is very easy to do.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a fastener of the type described above which is devoid of the many faults associated with insecure wall fasteners. Another major problem with prior art item holders is that, because of the need to suspend the item holder from two horizontally adjacent holes, an expensive weld is needed in order to attach a central item holding rod or framework. The present invention provides a fastener for attachment to a perforated wall which overcomes all of the aforementioned deficiencies. The need for the invention is paramount in the commercial field, where items are supported on rigid, long, straight bars for convenient inspection and handling by consumers and for high visibility of displayed consumer items to be purchased.
With the problem of locking an item holder (or toolholder) to an apertured wall solved by the present invention, the design of the inserted hanger portion for the item holder can take on any number of forms, in addition to long rigid straight bars. Additionally, any wire rod or frame construction can be formed out of wire of an optimum diameter and not restricted to a wire size related to the hole size in the perfboard.
Accordingly, with the aforementioned problems solved, there will emerge a need for hangers or supports of varied configurations, including long vertically oriented hooks, large diameter horizontal loops, box-like attachments for containing small parts, U-shaped hangers for accommodating tools or other items between the legs of the U-shaped hinge having a bight portion extending outwardly from the board, and the inwardly directed end of the hanger being fixed to the wall fastener body. For even more specialized applications, for example in supporting carpenter's planes, sanders, routers, and other hand and power tools which have wide bases, a wire frame arrangement may be constructed to provide a secure, optionally railed, platform for maintaining the tool in place, with an extension from the hanger adapted to be attached to the body of a fastener locked to the wall of the board in accordance with the present invention. In this field of application, it would be clear to the person skilled in the art of wall fasteners that hanging tools and the like are simply examples of items that can be supported by or from such hangers, and in the latter example, model airplanes, cars, boats, etc. can be mounted for visual display with the wire frame supports being color coordinated with the item displayed. Panels, decals, or other enhancement features fixed to the wire frame will enhance the visual appearance thereof or give more significance to the displayed item. In the latter case, for example, a title for the item being displayed, a date, a creator's name, etc. can be beneficially employed in this aspect of the invention.
For the purposes of this description, the term "pin" is meant to include any elongated member made of any type of semi-rigid or rigid material, with or without threads, with or without a shaped contour, and with or without a head portion. In this description, the term "plunger" will include a pin and pin head combination. When used in describing certain aspects of the present invention, the term "plunger" may be used synonymously with the word "pin" and has the same meaning.